Love Wore A Halo (Back Before The War) Lyrics

by Nanci Griffith

He owned a hotel on Jersey shore
She made her living seeing the sailors door to door
He was a small Hawaiian with a crooked smile
But he made her eyes light up like the heavens on the Fourth of July

She ran the numbers, they say she ran them clean
Those porcelain hands keep a ledger even in her sleeves
While he worked the See-Bees in the Phillipines
They say she made more money than you and I will ever see

Chorus:
    Cause love was a magnet on the Jersey shore
    If you were looking for love boys, you could have found it in '44
    Cause love wore a halo back before the war
    When the men loved the women
    And the women knew what men were for

It was in the winter when he came home
And he had to hold those porcelain hands just to keep her warm
So they had a daughter, her name was Stephanie Anne
They sent her off to Vasser to find herself a family man

She sold the hotel; it belongs to me
And I watch those sailors come and go by the waves in the sea
From the poor chaps in the honeymoon suite
And I hear them fishing their lives away in the Florida Keys